Gateway to the Garden
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Scheduled to be completed in late 2022, the Gateway to the Garden campaign will transform the way visitors experience the Garden, planting the seeds for growth and discovery for decades to come.
This $100 million campaign will be funded entirely through private donations with leadership gifts from many generous Garden supporters.
"The Gateway to the Garden campaign will create a treasure for St. Louis, allowing us to advance our role as a global leader in plant science and as an important cultural institution for the region and the nation.”
-Peter Wyse Jackson
President, Missouri Botanical Garden
Phase 2 Now Underway
We are dedicated to serving our mission throughout the transformation process,
and throughout the two-year construction, we will remain open.
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Phase 3
Jun. 2022–Nov. 2022
Completion of Event Center
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Phase 2
Oct. 2020–Jun. 2022
Construction of the Main Entrance
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Phase 1
Jan. 2020–Oct. 2020
Construction of the Event Center
Updates
April 21, 2021
Azaleas on Alfred
November 12, 2020
New Temporary Visitor Center is Open
Building for the Future
The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center is the centerpiece of the Gateway to the Garden campaign.
The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center will help us better serve St. Louis and guests from around the world for generations, significantly expanding the Garden’s ability to educate, entertain, and engage visitors in more ways. The Garden’s new entry experience will include a dynamic, diverse landscape of species that beautifully illustrate the story of the Garden’s global mission.
- Composed entirely of glass, the south side of the facility will afford stunning views of the Garden from every vantage point.
- Garden Gate Shop will be twice the size and fully accessible with a large outdoor plant sale area.
- Sassafras will offer several dining options and will feature indoor and expanded outdoor seating with panoramic views of the Garden.
- The new Bayer Event Center will serve the community and host private events, conferences, and educational sessions.
- The Lelia J. and David N. Farr Auditorium will serve as a community meeting space and will feature an orientation to your visit and other virtual tours.
- An interactive Video Wall will showcase our conservation work around the globe and in the St. Louis community.
ConnectingPeople with Plants
The Gateway to the Garden campaign will create new opportunities to experience the Garden’s work—connecting people with plants and showcasing the natural world—firsthand.
Additional gardens, reimagined display areas, and more than 30,000 new plants will immerse visitors in the rare and endangered flora the Garden is fighting to conserve around the world.
- The entry garden will surround visitors with unique plantings from regions where the Garden has a significant research presence.
- The landscape on the south side of the Taylor Visitor Center will feature rare species never seen in the Garden before, providing breathtaking views of some of the Garden’s most iconic areas.
- The Emerson Floral Conservatory and Orthwein Conservatory Garden are the first dedicated floral conservatory and display hall constructed on Garden grounds since 1915. They will house a permanent collection of Mediterranean plants as well as the annual Orchid Show and Holiday Show, and other beloved floral events and exhibits.
- The Shoenberg Temperate House will be renovated and will serve as a permanent display space for the Garden’s expansive arid collection for the first time in decades.
- The Linnean House conservatory, restored to its origins as a historic orangery–fashionable in Europe between the 17th and the 19th centuries–will feature fragrant and vibrant displays of fruit trees and afford visitors greater accessibility.
- A new entrance to the Bakewell Ottoman Garden will invite more visitors to explore this beautiful and ornate treasure.
Oertli FamilyHardy Plant Nursery
The Nursery is a center for propagating endangered plants for conservation projects. Nearly half of the species displayed in the renovated landscapes will be propagated at the Oertli Nursery and will be new to the Garden’s collections.
Many of the plantings that will eventually populate the area around the Taylor Visitor Center are currently being propagated at the Garden’s Oertli Family Hardy Plant Nursery located approximately one mile south of the Garden.
- Current greenhouse limitations allow for only a small percentage of plants on display to be wild-sourced. The Nursery will allow the Garden to display wild-sourced plants in numbers that more closely match those of our peer gardens in Chicago, New York, and London.
- The non-native plantings selected for these additional gardens are common to regions similar in climate to St. Louis, including Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, central Asia, China, and Japan. Woodland, grassland, arid, and Mediterranean landscape biomes are represented.
A Sustainable Building for a Sustainable Future
Sustainably designed and built for future growth, the Gateway to the Garden project incorporates current best practices for optimal use with as minimal environmental impact as possible.
- Concrete cement, rock, and sand used in the project are sourced from local quarries, eliminating the emissions associated with transporting goods across long distances. The limestone and granite cladding on the building’s outer walls is taken from a quarry in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
- Rooftop solar panels will produce an average of 300-megawatt hours per year, resulting in a reduction of carbon emissions roughly equivalent to the annual output required to power 33.3 homes annually.
- A 50,000-gallon stormwater collection system built into the Garden landscape will reduce water consumption for the care of the thousands of plants populating the displays that surround the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center.
- Additional electric vehicle (EV) charging stations will increase capacity for gas-free automobiles, including accommodations for accessible parking with an EV.
- Enhanced digital displays and electronic ticketing will reduce reliance on printed materials for visitor information.
- Low-flow water fixtures will reduce demand on potable water.
- Automated mechanical systems will preserve staff and visitor comfort while reducing annual energy expenses by 23% from standard technologies.
Be a part of the transformation
Donate.
Be a part of the Gateway to the Garden campaign.
Contact Valerie Rudy-Valli at (314) 577-5120 or vrudy-valli@mobot.org
Visit.
Enjoy the Garden throughout construction.
Get updates.
Sign up to receive news via email.
STL
Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center Overview
Thank you!
The Garden wouldn't be the Garden without our Members, Donors, and Volunteers.